Italy’s varied cuisine is a result of its climate, geography, and unique history as an innovator and as a culture often influenced by outsiders.
The Apennine Mountain range runs through Italy’s center from North to South and has thus provided plenty of rich volcanic soil to grow the limitless bounty of vegetables found in Italian cuisine. During the Renaissance from about the 12th Century, Italy began to form the basis for what is now called the Mediterranean Diet. The first written records of pasta go back to 1100AD. It was introduced from the Middle East in Sicily and it provided a foundation of filling carbs that need only a modest amount of vegetables and protein to create healthy and tasty dishes.
Italian navigators and merchants were the primary sources of the importation of salt which is the first food preservative, and spices from the Orient. Combined with local agricultural diversity and the Renaissance quest for expanding the possibilities of the senses, the Food Movement marched forward.
Adding to this, Italy has always been considered a “geographic expression”, but it has only been a country since 1861. Even though many of its explorers were among the early Europeans to come to the Americas, Italy is younger than the United States. It has spent a great deal of its history being divided up and battled over by former European powers, the Vatican as well as other Mediterranean countries.
This fostered influence and innovation from the occupiers, but it also cut off controlled regions from each other. That’s one of the reasons Italy has so many distinct cuisines and local language dialects.
Our Le Marche (pronounced lay markay) region benefits from all of the above and even better yet, it resides on the rich waters of the Adriatic Sea that secures an invaluable resource of fresh seafood.
How does True Colors of Italy select what and where we will eat? We start off by seeing what you are in the mood for. We’ll offer up suggestions such as what do you feel like tonight? Street food, eat like a local or something upscale.
We’ve got you covered.
